A new hospice company in the area is preparing to roll out a virtual reality experience for its patients next month.

Dan Miller, marketing and business development liaison for Affinity Care of Pennsylvania, said patients will be able to wear a virtual reality headset and experience “immersive scenarios that give temporary relief from pain, reduced anxiety and worry.”

“It helps patients with restricted mobility a chance to enjoy new experiences, but also relive old ones and those beautiful scenarios create a sense of newness and adventure and providing the opportunity for those patients, families and staff to engage one another in different ways and ultimately enhance that end of life experience,” Miller said.

An Affinity Care specialist will sit next to the patient with an iPad, guiding them through the experience, which could range from bucket list items such as skydiving in Brazil, experiencing the Northern Lights or swimming with dolphins.

The device, Miller said, can also allow a hospice patient to attend a family event virtually or visit their childhood home.

“So if a patient always had a dream of going to the Great Pyramids, but they’re bed bound, they can’t do it,” Miller said. “We can actually take them to the Great Pyramids so they can actually enjoy that experience.”

The Affinity Care virtual reality experience will debut in August.

“There are studies that show it helps reduce pain and anxiety,” Miller said. “It’s almost like a distraction type of therapy. So they aren’t laying there just thinking about their pain. It gives them an opportunity to escape, which in turn reduces that pain.”

While the technology has been around and utilized on a broader scale for around five years, Miller said it’s new to the area.

“Not too many places were actually implementing it but as time goes by, there are more and more studies, and more and more agencies, seeing the great benefits that are coming from utilizing the virtual reality,” he said. “With dementia and Alzheimer’s patients, we can put them in a scenario that they were familiar with when they were younger. That can actually calm them down and really enhance their quality of life.”